


Summer Memories

by paperxcrowns



Series: The Fabric of Magic [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Robin (Comics)
Genre: Brotherly Bonding, Dick Grayson and Jason Todd are Siblings, Dick and Jason bonding, Fluff, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Human Bruce Wayne, Magic, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Witches, dick is a celestial nymph, i dont tag alfred bc i still have no idea what to make him lmaoo, jason is part dragon, no beta we die like jason todd, sibling shenanigans, to make up for how sad the previous story made me, y'all deserve the fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:09:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29517207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperxcrowns/pseuds/paperxcrowns
Summary: Dick and Jason go on a quest to find a sand witch.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd
Series: The Fabric of Magic [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2158773
Kudos: 38





	Summer Memories

**Author's Note:**

> this is so dumb skdlflskdk i just needed to write fluff and bonding to make up for the previous fic

“I _have_ seen a sand witch!” Jason proclaimed.

Dick scoffed, carefully slicing tomatoes for his panini. “Right. Next, you’ll tell me the sugarplum fairy is real.”

Jason unfolded his arms and gazed at the tiled ground thoughtfully. “I’m sure you could find a fairy that sells sugar plums.”

Dick huffed a laugh and set two tomato slices on one slice of bread. He plucked some lettuce and dropped it on top of the tomatoes

“And where did you see that sand witch?” he asked.

Jason rolled his eyes. “By the sand.”

Dick closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Okay, so Jason was going to mock him for being skeptical. That was fine. 

“Was she building a sandcastle?” he asked.

Jason scowled, his wings flapping restlessly. 

Dick sighed. “You wanted chicken, right?”

Jason nodded and silently watched Dick busy himself at the kitchen counter. 

It was a lazy day.

It was summer vacation and Alfred was outside trimming the roses and other flowers he liked to grow in the front and back yards. Bruce was on a business trip for at least another week, so it had fallen upon Dick to watch both Jason and Gotham in his absence. Sure, he’d given Bruce a piece of his mind for dropping the news at the last possible minute, _like he always did,_ but Dick had a month off work and it would mean hanging out with Jason every day.

Alfred had spent the entire morning outside, so Dick had taken it upon himself to make lunch for all three of them. 

Jason had asked for paninis, so Dick had brought out the panini machine from the back of a cabinet (he didn’t even know they _owned_ a panini machine).

“Make your sandwich and then we’ll talk about your sand witch,” Dick said, making sure to make the distinction between both words.

Jason hopped off his barstool and flicked Dick’s ear on his way past him. Dick simply stuck his tongue out at him. He’d already stuck his and Alfred’s paninis in the machine and couldn’t move around or even lift his arms. He could still kick. Though Alfred wouldn’t be happy with Dick.

“She’s real, okay?” Jason argued. 

Dick hummed noncommittally. “Can we go see her, then?”

Jason paused where he’d been rooting around the fridge for-- something Dick must’ve forgotten to take out. Or some weird filling that Jason probably liked that would gross Dick out. 

“I mean-- I’m _pretty sure_ she’s still in the same place I saw her last,” he said, turning around to glare at Dick. “And before you ask, _no_ , she does _not_ live in a sandcastle. She lives in a cabin.”

Dick smirked. “Right. My apologies. That’s _much_ better.”

Jason pulled out barbecue sauce and while Dick thought it was an absolutely _vile_ thing, it could have been marginally worse, so he let it go. 

He was just glad they’d progressed past the point where the kid was skittish and terrified of arguing with anyone. He was glad they could hang out and talk like that. It made things less lonely. 

“D’you wanna go this afternoon?” Dick asked, lifting the press to check the paninis. 

Jason was in the process of mixing barbecue sauce with hot sauce and honey. Dick wrinkled his nose at that. Jason liked spicy food. Dick was fine with spicy food. But Jason took it to the next level. Dick had once seen Jason eat a whole spoonful of hot sauce one evening. It could be a dragon thing, but at the same time, it was equally possible it was just a Jason thing.

He shrugged. “I’m down,” he said. “She probably won’t recognize me.”

Dick carefully pulled out Alfred’s paninis with red silicone tongs. “How _did_ you meet her?”

He whisked two plates over to him from where they were drying by the sink and dropped Alfred’s panini on one. 

Jason rolled his eyes. “Show off.”

Dick made a noise. “Excuse me, you just _flaunt_ your wings around _all the time_ and _I’m_ showing off?”

Jason threw a piece of grilled chicken at Dick who instinctively deflected it. It hit the backburner instead of Dick’s forehead.

He didn’t bother with the tongs, just waved them around a little and lifted his panini effortlessly, and set it down on his own plate. The air in the house was warm enough that it wouldn’t cool down his sandwich too quickly.

“Dad was drunk and angry,” Jason said. “Mom doesn’t want me around when he’s like that, so she sent me out and told me not to come back until six. So I went down to one of the sandy areas of Gotham Harbor and there was a lady there. She looked weird.” Jason paused, frowning thoughtfully. “Well, okay, not _that_ weird. But she _was_ doing something weird. She was just sitting on the sand and shoveling sand in her pockets and in her tote bag.”

Dick snorted. “Did she do any _actual_ magic?”

Jason scooped some of his weird barbecue sauce, hot sauce, and honey mixture onto the other slice of bread and spread it around with the back of the spoon. He scooped some caramelized onions on top before smushing it down over the other half.

“Well yeah,” Jason said, moving in front of Dick, plate in hand. “That’s how I know she’s a _witch.”_

This whole conversation was _absurd._

“Care to elaborate? Ever?”

Jason set his panini in the press and pulled the top down. There was the familiar satisfying hiss of the hot metal. Dick stepped back to let Jason handle things, hopping up on the counter gracefully, still keeping an eye on Jason. Yes, Jason was part dragon and was much more comfortable around hot things than Dick, but he was still fourteen and Dick was still gonna keep an eye on him.

“I kinda watched her from afar for a bit,” Jason said. “At some point, she stopped shoveling said and instead grabbed a handful of sand and started inspecting it, I guess. She was muttering something, uh… I’m pretty sure it wasn’t English. And then the sand in her hand started floating, which _definitely_ makes her some type of magic-wielding person.”

Dick pursed his lips, his legs swinging. “Okay, yeah, I’ll give you that. That’s a little weird.”

“And, you know, I call her the sand witch because she did magic with sand. I’m sure she can do plenty of other kinds of magic.” 

Dick, being twenty-one and legally an adult and allowed to drink alcohol, was completely in his right to curse out teenagers for their sarcastic nature. He was also in his right to be completely aware of the fact that he himself had been a sarcastic teenager, too.

“So did you just stare at her like a mini stalker or did you talk to her?” Dick asked instead.

Two could play at that game. He pulled one of his legs up on the counter and rested his chin on his knee. The marble countertop was colder than the tiles, but Dick didn’t mind the chill on his bare feet, much.

“She saw me. After her ritual or whatever she was doing. She asked me if I wanted to buy a seashell.”

Dick raised both of his eyebrows at that, smirking. “Oh?”

Jason shrugged. “I said no. She told me that my dad had left the house so I could go back home.”

The smirk dropped. “Oh?”

“I didn’t go home,” Jason said. “I’m not fucking stupid. I went home when I was supposed to go home, and Dad had left by then.” Jason drummed his fingers on top of the machine. “I asked her, and she said he’d left a few hours ago.”

Dick nodded slowly. “Ah. I see.”

“Can you get the lemonade?” Jason asked. 

Dick lazily flicked his wrist in the direction of the fridge. It had taken some work to get doors to open, but years of training the skill had made him a pro. And the fridge was easier, with the cold air from the inside that he could use. The door swung open and the half-empty bottle of lemonade gently floated towards them and landed next to the panini machine. 

“So _now_ you believe me?” Jason asked smugly.

Dick scowled. “Can we still go see if she lives where you say she lives? Maybe if she can read the future she can tell me when I’ll stop seeing you make those horrifying concoctions.”

Jason grimaced and blew a raspberry at Dick. “Fuck you. I could always just not take you.”

Dick rolled his eyes. “Okay, I’m sorry. You’re burning your panini.”

Jason lifted the press then closed it again. “I like it when it’s crunchy.”

Dick shook his head, picking at the crumbs on his plate. “You are a weird kid.”

“Psh, like _you’re_ any more normal.”

Dick shrugged. “Never said I was,” he replied mildly. “How dare you assume that. Do we have ice cream?”

Finally, Jason lifted the press and pulled his panini out with the tongs. It had been there so long the bread was black in places. Dick grimaced. 

“Alf bought lemon ice cream yesterday,” Jason said scornfully. 

Dick perked up. “Ooh, lemon?”

Jason shot him an appalled look. “You _like_ that shit?”

Dick hopped off the counter. “I like yellow,” he said. “And yellow food. Lemon ice cream. The yellow Skittles. The yellow Starbursts.”

Jason grabbed the lemonade and stomped towards the patio. “You disgust me.”

Dick simply rolled his eyes and trailed after Jason with the two plates. He set them on the table, squinting in the bright sunlight. He’d have to get sunglasses. 

Jason looked perfectly content in his Gotham Knights tank top, his scales gleaming in the bright afternoon sun. 

Dick spotted Alfred trimming the wisteria climbing up the side of the Manor with shears, his overalls stained green. 

Dick sat down and waved at Jason. “You get the cups,” he said. “I made the paninis.”

Jason glared at him but didn’t complain when he turned and walked back inside the house. Good, because Dick wouldn't have argued back. The day was much too nice for that. It was the beginning of June, which meant a few more weeks of warm balmy weather before the July and August heatwaves rolled in to suffocate Gotham. The only one who would enjoy that was going to be Jason. Dick was going to be staying inside the nice, cool house, with his AC and that would be that. 

* * *

They were walking along the walkway along Gotham Harbor, Jason finishing off a chocolate ice cream in his hands because it was just _so unfair_ that Dick and Alfred had gotten ice cream but not him, _just because_ he didn’t like lemon ice cream. 

Occasionally, he would shift the air currents around them to ruffle Jason’s hair.

It was fun and took his mind off the fact that Jason had stolen a flannel shirt from Dick (that he’d stolen from Wally, but whatever) to cover up his scales and wings. But Jason seemed fine, so Dick was going to have to take that in stride and not think about it.

“You’re _sure_ this isn’t some _devious_ plot to get out of flight training?” Dick asked again, just to rile the kid up.

Jason actually looked affronted at that. “Of course not.” 

The sky was clear of clouds and seagulls were screaming overhead. Dick breathed in the salty air and smiled. He liked living by the coast. 

Jason strayed off the walk and stepped over the low fence. “I went down there,” he said, pointing at a stone staircase carved into the side of the walk that led to a small stretch of golden sand and jutting black rocks. There was a pier on the edge of the small beach leading to a gleaming white boat. 

“Is that private property?” Dick asked, not in the mood to ruin his day by pissing off some asshole rich snob.

Jason snorted and shrugged. “Who cares? No one cared last time I went down there, and it leads to a public beach anyways.”

Dick sighed but followed Jason down the stairs. His eyes caught a metal sign painted red that read ‘private property’. Great. Just great. 

He hoped the sand witch wasn’t the owner of said private property.

The air was significantly cooler closer to the water and half-hidden from the sun. He caught Jason shuddering and mumble something under his breath and he grinned.

Dick pause don the last step to take off his sneakers and socks before stepping on the cool sand.

Jason raised an eyebrow. “Do you always have to take off your shoes?”

Dick shrugged. “I like being barefoot,” he said. “I was barefoot pretty much all the time at Haly’s.”

Jason’s lip quirked up. “Does it help your powers?”

Dick laughed. “I _wish._ Lead the way, Little Wing.”

Jason led them all across the small beach, pausing only to take off his own shoes and roll up the hem of his jeans to wade through the shallow water when the rock outcroppings met the water. Dick was wearing cutoff shorts and didn’t have to bother with rolling up the hem. 

He followed Jason around the rocks, passing under one of the many bridges that ran across the harbor. He patted the slimy surface of a support beam and poked at a few barnacles.

Dick’s caught sight of orange and white in the clear water and bent over to pick up one half of the shell of a great scallop. He grinned and tucked it in his back pocket.

“That’s the beach where I saw her,” Jason said once the jagged rock started to give way to a larger beach. 

There were a few people around, laying on towels or attempting to brave the freezing waters of the Atlantic. This was a small beach, much too close to traffic and much too covered by the shadow of the bridge for it to be a very popular spot, so it was still relatively deserted.

They made their way to the shore and Jason sighed when his feet touched the sun-warmed sand. Dick sunk his toes in the warm sand.

Jason nudged him with his elbow and he glanced over.   
“What?”

Jason nodded. “She’s here,” he said in a loud whisper.

Dick glanced over and saw, crouching a few feet away from the small crowds, a woman shoveling sand in a backpack. She was far enough that Dick was pretty sure she wouldn’t hear them.

“She can’t hear us,” he said.

At that, the woman (the Sand Witch, as Jason had called her) looked up and grinned at Dick and Jason. Jason elbowed Dick hard enough that he stumbled back into the water.

“Idiot,” Jason hissed.

The witch looked old, definitely in her late sixties, though with people who could do magic, it was always hard to estimate their age. The fortune-teller at Haly’s didn’t look a day over thirty-five but Dick had found out that she’d been _much_ older. Her clothes weren’t that odd-- they were just a simple dark robe covered in sand. There were a _lot_ of magic users in Gotham who wore robes out on a daily basis. Surprisingly, there weren’t as many in Blüdhaven. Gothamites were weird.

“I think she recognized you,” Dick said.

Jason scowled. “So? We can’t just go up to her--”

Dick’s lips twitched. “I mean-- wasn’t that the whole point of you bringing me here? So that I could see some sand voodoo?”

Jason gave him an unimpressed look, his arms crossed over his chest. It would have looked more serious if his feet weren’t completely buried in the sand. “Is that what you’re gonna say?” he asked. “Just ask her to do weird sand shit?”

Dick snorted. “Of course not, but that would be funny.”

Jason huffed. “You know what? _You_ can go--”

 _“We_ can go.”

 _“No,_ no way--”

Dick bent down and grabbed Jason by the waist and quickly hoisted him over his shoulder before he could register what was happening. The only way Dick could ever get away with hoisting Jason up like that was when he caught him by surprise. The kid was _fiercely_ strong when he wanted. 

Jason squawked in surprise and struggled against Dick’s grip.

“Let me go,” he hissed. “Right fucking now. I hate you. Let me _go.”_

Dick laughed but didn’t let Jason go until they were a few feet in front of the witch who was still staring at them in amusement.

Jason had called Dick a social butterfly on many occasions. Dick actually liked the term itself and didn’t mind how social he was. Though he was never above using his social skills for malice. It was just so _easy_ sometimes.

“Good afternoon,” Dick said pleasantly. “My brother--”

She waved her hand, going back to examining grains of sand in her open palm.

“Jason,” she said. “I remember him. Quiet kid.”

Her graying hair was twisted in a tight braid but still sprinkled with sand. Dick crouched in front of her, actively ignoring Jason, who was standing at a distance, trying to go unnoticed. 

Dick didn’t interrupt whatever she was doing; interrupting any kind of ritual or scrying was always irritating and annoying, and Dick’s parents hadn’t raised him to be rude. 

“I am a normal witch, since that is what you want to know. I'm not sure what other kind of witch I could be,” she said, still sorting through the sand. “I just prefer using sand for my rituals and scrying.” She cast an amused glance at Jason who flushed a deep cherry red. “I am a perfectly average witch. Though I do sell seashells. Children love them.”

She looked up and smiled at him. “That is a pretty shell,” she said, nodded her chin towards his pocket. “You might want the other half.”

She pulled out a shell identical to the one Dick had found, down to the funny squiggly lines of white among the orange. She handed it to Dick who accepted it, a little awkwardly.

“Uh… thank you?”

She just grinned at Jason. “Your little brother has a fun sense of humor.” She stood up and brushed the sand off her robes. “A sand witch,” she said before cackling and walking away.

Jason was red as a beet and Dick considered asking him if he was still breathing.

“You weren’t _wrong,”_ Dick offered. “Really, you said she did magic, and she did. I think calling her a sand witch was funny.”

Jason rolled his eyes. “Don’t start. Can we go home now?”

Dick pushed himself up from where he was crouching and hooked an arm around Jason’s shoulder. His tense shoulders relaxed and his face went back to its normal color.

“We absolutely can,” he said. “Wanna watch a movie tonight?”

Jason pursed his lips thoughtfully. “A summer movie,” he said. “My one and only condition.”

Dick laughed. "It would be _ridiculous_ to watch anything else,” he said, resting his cheek against the top of Jason’s head.

**Author's Note:**

> don't get too comfortable, i have a lot of angst coming up :)
> 
> [you can say hi on tumblr!](https://blas-ph-emy.tumblr.com/)


End file.
